Every year, my dad's side of the family packs up the car and heads to a lake a few hours north of our hometown. If you are one of the ones that know me personally and read this blog, to help you imagine what we get ourselves into every year:
Take me and my loud, opinionated personality and clone me 20 times...and you have my family.
I could talk and talk and talk about this week, but truthfully, you have to live it to truly experience it. Otherwise, it's not completely true. We spend the week reading, sleeping, eating so well we gain 12 pounds each, skiing, sunbathing, playing so many card games our fingers go numb, and laughing until we almost pee our pants.
But like I said, words will never do it justice, so I will turn it over to some visual images to hopefully try to show the epic week it always turns out to be.
The sad story of a boy who just wanted to tube.
Everyone in our family skiis, although maybe not as well as we thought, right Uncle Sp?
As much as we love our full house of adults and small cousins, but sometimes the big kids need to go play on our own.
My sister and I taught the family how to play the game "Fishbowl". My sweet grandfather didn't really get it, and since he's a bit older, he's as blind as a bat. I love how we have to give him a lamp so he could play. He was just enjoying some family time. Bless his heart.
My cute little sister.
There's always a cousin to play with at the lake!
Even the dog was exhausted!
It's a good thing that my cousin is going to school to be a surgeon. The joke around the family is
"If we spend more money on gas than we do at the ER or Urgent Care, then it's not a Family Vacation!"
The awesome view from our back deck.
I am #2 of the grandchildren. Here is the traditional family picture with all of us and our sweet grandparents!
While we were there, my mom turned 47. So of course, a surprise cake and ice cream party was in order!
Cousin #1 was making fun of Cousin #4 because of this pose she always strikes when it's time to take a picture. So we just opted for a photo shoot!
It's really bright outside, and Mama's gotta read...so she got creative.
Just two brothers off on a grand adventure...
My sister is one hott cookie, isn't she?
It's always fun to sink Dad's paddle boat, isn't it, #11?
#1 and #11
